NASCAR WCUP: Ken Schrader event preview, Brickyard 400
3 August 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Ken Schrader Said...
"We tested at Indy last month, but now it's time to take everything we learned and apply it under race conditions. I have high hopes for the "M&M's" Racing Team this weekend at Indy. This team knows what it needs to do in order to qualify well and to run well. The "M&M's" Team won the pole position for the Brickyard in 1998 with Ernie Irvan and I've qualified pretty consistently there since 1995, so we're hoping to turn our qualifying luck around at Indy."
Ken Schrader's Stats...
* The "M&M's" Racing Team captured their first pole position in only their second year as a team in the Winston Cup Series at the 1998 Brickyard 400. Driver Ernie Irvan, who retired in September 1999, was behind the wheel of the No. 36 Pontiac at that time. The "M&M's" Team set a new track record with their lap, which was bested by only six-thousandths of a second in 1999.
* The "M&M's" Racing Team tested at Indianapolis Motor Speedway July 11 and 12 as part of the General Motors test session. The team turned a lap that equaled the pole speed from 1999 and was fourth overall in the GM test.
* The "M&M's" Pontiac that the team will utilize this weekend was the best of the two cars the team tested at Indy in July. This same "M&M's" Pontiac also competed earlier this year at Michigan, Charlotte and Pocono.
* Schrader credits a wreck at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1983 for sending him into the world of stock car racing and most recently with the "M&M's" Racing Team. He experienced his self-proclaimed 'best wreck of my career' while attempting to qualify for the 1983 Indianapolis 500. Schrader, an open-wheel champion who was following in the tire tracks of his hero A.J. Foyt, wrecked the only car they had during practice and spoiled the team's chances of making the show. Schrader made his first Winston Cup start the following year and now, 15 years later, he owns four Winston Cup victories and 23 pole positions.
Text provided by Laura Ehret
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